When most people hear “smokey eye” you think high drama, smoldering, nighttime appropriate makeup. But what if you toned down the typical smokey eye and made it daytime appropriate? You can still have your cake and eat it too, beauty lovers! Smokey eyes for the daytime are not out of the question, and are especially perfect for those special days when you need or want a bit of a sexier look. To see how to get a daytime smokey eye,
For this look, I used my Too Faced Glamour To Go Pocket Palette, which I chose as a 500-point reward at Sephora, as it came in a cheetah print pouch with a few other Too Faced goodies. The palette has eight eyeshadows, four lip glosses, and a blush inside of it, all while managing to be smaller than the length of your palm.
For this look, I am using three shades from the eyeshadow palette:
Making a smokey eye appropriate for daytime requires only a few small tweaks:
- Think nude. Use neutrals such as pink or beige for the inner corners of your eyes. For this look, I am using a sheer, semi-matte pinkish-fawn color for the inner corner of my eye. It appears pink, but then it appears to look nude again. However your perception, this keeps things more toned down than the usual smokey eye.
- Think sheer. Use sheer shades that will blend easily into one another. These Too Faced eyeshadows are wonderfully pigmented, but I purposely chose shades that I knew would give me a sheer wash of color once blended. The trick is to soften the pigmentation of the color while blending.
- Think borders. Most smokey eye looks will go beyond the crease of your eye, for a high-drama look. To keep your smokey eye daytime appropriate, use your crease as a “border,” not going beyond your crease with any of your eyeshadow shades. This keeps the look more daytime than avant-garde high fashion.
How to achieve the Daytime Smokey Eye:
First, sweep the lightest shade, the pink-nude eyeshadow, into the inner corner of your eyelids, and sweep up and outward. This is going to really open up your eye, especially if you are tired, or need a “pick-me-up.”
Second, lightly pat down the eyelid color, which is a sheer, medium gray shade. The reason this shade in particular works wonderfully is because it has a bit of shimmer to it, and actually picks up and reflects the pink-nude color from the inner corner of our eye. This shade looks dark in the palette, and it can be applied for high drama, but I made sure to pat one layer lightly, and blend out well in the crease area.
Third, apply the deepest shade, the shimmery black, to the outer third of your eye. Most smokey eyes take the “smokey” part up and into the crease of the eye. For our daytime appropriate smokey eye, we are only going to lightly pat this shade down on the outer third of our eye. From here, you then take a blending brush, and blend out the black with circular motions, sweeping the black into a more sheer shimmer, and only blending it up slightly.
Fourth, apply a black eyeliner to your lower waterline. Most smokey eyes add dark eyeshadow or very thick eyeliner to the bottom lash line. For the daytime smokey eye, we still want the effect, but a slightly more demure version. Once you have applied black eyeliner only to your lower waterline, take a smudging tool (an eyeshadow sponge works beautifully), and with a very light hand, smudge the black liner from the waterline down slightly. The reason we are doing this is so that the line doesn’t look perfect and straight, but slightly disheveled.
Fifth, lightly pat down the lightest shade you used for the inner corner of your eye onto your brow bone. This helps to accentuate your face, and bring everything together. Curl your lashes and apply your favorite mascara.
Viola! A daytime smokey eye that is sexy, yet sunshine appropriate.
For my cheeks, I used the peachy-pink blush that came in the palette (shown earlier in the post). I swept this very lightly onto the apples of my cheeks.
For my lips, I did something different than the usual nude or pale pink lip for a smokey eye. I went with a slightly perkier option, MAC’s Fresh Salmon lipstick. Since I applied lip balm on my lips first before using it, the color came out coral pink, but slightly more toned down. The salmon lipstick color works great with a daytime smokey eye, because it is more fresh looking than a nude lip.
The Too Faced Glamour To Go Pocket Palette is still available at Sephora in a similar palette to the one featured in this post. It is available at your local Sephora for $19.50, or you can browse and purchase online by clicking the link and photograph below:
Too Faced Glamour To Go 2 Pocket Palette Glamour to Go 2 Pocket Palette
Have a question or a comment about achieving a daytime smokey eye?
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Jackie Huesing says
Any idea if the nude non shimmer lip gloss in the original Glamour to go Catwalk collection can be purchased separately;
Rebecca says
Hey Jackie, as far as I know, the exact shade isn’t sold separately, but upon looking at the Too Faced Cosmetics website, it appears that these are similar:
Dare Me Lipgloss: http://www.toofaced.com/product_template_003.aspx?dept_sub_id=2&dept_id=1&cat_id=152
Totally Nude Lipstick: http://www.toofaced.com/product_template_003.aspx?dept_sub_id=4&dept_id=1&cat_id=12
Hope that helped!